Ever since that first major journey at twelve when I went to America with the scouts, I've travelled to foreign countries and loved the whole experience.  Right from packing, which doesn't usually take me that long at all, the event starts for me.  In honesty, the excitement starts for me when I arrive at the airport.

Airports are fascinating places full of people waiting to travel for all sorts of reasons to all corners of the world.  I often look around an airport whilst I'm waiting to depart and wonder just how far apart all of these people will be within just a few hours.

I really love the flight itself and just HAVE to have a window seat.  It's a matter of amusement to my friends just why I want a window seat, but I see so much up there and let my mind wander about all sorts of things; can I work out where we're flying over? why was that city built in what seems to be the middle of absolutely nowhere? where's that plane going to that I just saw? whose on it? whose flying it ?

But often I just look at the clouds and think of those things which I otherwise don't make time for.  It's quite therapeutic in many respects.  However that's just the start of it all.  Going to new countries and trying to integrate as best as a traveller can into the culture that you're visiting is important to me.  I know that as a tourist you can only ever be perceived as such, but one thing I dislike about many British abroad is the way they make no concession to the fact that they are in another country with different cultures and values which need respect.  The last thing I want to do when I travel to other countries is to have the kind of entertainment and food options which I can find in any English city.  To that extent I will try to distance myself from the kind of offerings laid on for people who just want a piece of little England in another country.

Whilst I'm not particularly fluent in any language, my French is the best, with Spanish and Italian a distant second.  However I do try to make an effort when I'm in other countries and I always figure that if you can count, say please, thank you, hello, goodbye and ask 'what is' and 'how much' in the local language, then the process of communication has at least started.

I had a lot of fun in Thailand as the number system was quite easy to speak and before too long I could haggle, as one must on almost everything you buy, in Thai. The locals were quite amused and I'm sure gave me a better deal because of it.  But it also gave me a confidence to go and eat in the places where the tourists avoided and I feel I got so much more from my times there as a result.  I work on the principal that in the first instance foreign languages are just new sounds, and if the locals can make those sounds then so can I.

I've been to many places around the world and, living in London, experienced the pleasure of people from many cultures and countries.  London is a great melting pot, with many nationalities to be seen and languages to be heard on every corner.  I truly embrace the diversity and cosmopolitan nature of London and am intolerant of other people's intolerance to race and culture.

I've mentioned elsewhere in this site how perhaps my only major intolerance is to people who show racial prejudice in any form.  I don't understand it and don't want to be around people who display it.

So I will continue to travel, for any reason at all.  To ski, to meet new people, to see new places, to see old places, to visit friends or just for the sake of travelling and enjoying not just the destination but the journey itself.